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The Secret Project Hardcover – Picture Book, February 7, 2017

by Jonah Winter (Author), Jeanette Winter (Illustrator)
4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 25 ratings
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Five starred reviews!

Mother-son team Jonah and Jeanette Winter bring to life one of the most secretive scientific projects in history—the creation of the atomic bomb—in this “astonishing…beautifully told” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review) picture book.

At a former boy’s school in the remote desert of New Mexico, the world’s greatest scientists have gathered to work on the “Gadget,” an invention so dangerous and classified they cannot even call it by its real name. They work hard, surrounded by top security and sworn to secrecy, until finally they take their creation far out into the desert to test it, and afterward the world will never be the same.
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Previous page
  1. Reading age
    5 - 8 years
  2. Print length
    40 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Grade level
    Kindergarten - 3
  5. Lexile measure
    NC790L
  6. Dimensions
    8 x 0.3 x 11 inches
  7. Publisher
    Beach Lane Books
  8. Publication date
    February 7, 2017
  9. ISBN-10
    1481469134
  10. ISBN-13
    978-1481469135
  11. See all details
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Teachers' picks | Explore children's books by grade

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Gr 4–8—This powerful, if somewhat unpolished, account traces the development and testing of the first atomic device—code-named the "Gadget"—in the New Mexico desert. The story begins in a "peaceful desert mountain landscape," with a "quiet little boys' school" that is abruptly emptied of students and transformed into a laboratory where "shadowy figures" labor over a "secret invention." Two years later, a massive device is hauled to another site and suspended from a tower for detonation. Though the author artfully heightens the air of mystery by leaving out specific names, dates, and locales, the sudden switch partway through from past to present tense serves no evident purpose, and the comment that the "great scientists must complete their secret invention before any other scientists complete their secret invention" is too vague to be meaningful. (The author adds missing details and a clarification in his lengthy closing note: the Nazis were rumored to have a similar project under way.) Taking a cue from the work of Georgia O'Keeffe (and actually adding the artist to one scene), the illustrator places buildings and people into a series of wide, undulating, semiabstract New Mexico settings, then closes with a bang that is both literal and emotionally gut-wrenching: a countdown, four hellish full-page views of an expanding mushroom cloud, and a pitch-black final spread. The author's note ends with a devout, if quixotic, wish that nuclear weapons will one day be abolished. VERDICT A moving, nonpreachy springboard for older elementary grade and middle school discussions of the Manhattan Project or nuclear weapons in general—though educators will want to supplement with additional materials.—John Peters, Children's Literature Consultant, New York City

Review

"Jonah Winter’s honest depiction, accompanied by the vivid and detailed artwork, tells the creation of the atomic bomb with expertise and tact... This is an excellent historical, as well as scientific, picture book offering opportunity for rich discussion among student readers and educators. Highly Recommended." -- School Library Connection ― May/June 2017

"An author’s note supplies more information about the event and its repercussions, but the text itself, concise and thorough, stands on its own, its dispassionate accounting just the right counterpoint to the contained terror in the art." -- The Horn Book *STARRED REVIEW* ― March/April 2017

"A picture book’s powerful potential to reach multiple audiences at varied levels of prior knowledge and understanding is on full display here, and adults tasked with shepherding youth of all ages through the darkest episodes of history will appreciate so moving and versatile a guide. The youngest audience will learn the facts, but the sinister implications a secret government project and the unimaginable consequences of covert research will impel an older readership to confront their grim inheritance." -- Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books *STARRED REVIEW* ― January 2017

"Sure to spark conversation about ethics and the use of nuclear weaponry, this powerful book demands a wide readership." -- Publishers Weekly *STARRED REVIEW* ― 12/5/16

"[T]he quiet—and then abruptly explosive—tone is spot-on, cultivating both curiosity and unease, as if this is a secret we’d rather not know. Expect plenty of questions after sharing this with children, though it’s likely that’s precisely the point." -- Booklist *STARRED REVIEW* ― 12/1/16

"Jonah Winter's text is eloquent, and his mother's acrylic-and-pen illustrations evoke a beautiful landscape in danger if the scientists' contraption works.... An astonishing way to lay the groundwork for such works for older readers as Steve Sheinkin's Bomb (2012), this is a beautifully told introduction to a difficult subject." -- Kirkus Reviews *STARRED REVIEW* ― 11/1/16

A moving, nonpreachy springboard for older elementary grade and middle school discussions of the Manhattan Project or nuclear weapons in general. -- School Library Journal ― January 2017

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Beach Lane Books; Illustrated edition (February 7, 2017)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 40 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1481469134
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1481469135
  • Reading age ‏ : ‎ 5 - 8 years
  • Lexile measure ‏ : ‎ NC790L
  • Grade level ‏ : ‎ Kindergarten - 3
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 15.7 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 8 x 0.3 x 11 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 25 ratings

About the author

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Jonah Winter

Jonah Winter

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Jonah Winter is the award-winning, celebrated author of over 40 nonfiction picture books, including New York Times bestseller, BARACK. Jonah Winter’s wide-ranging interests have led him to write and illustrate picture books on racism, baseball players, avant-garde artists, jazz musicians, exotic dancers, presidents, manual laborers, Beethoven’s difficulties moving in and out of 39 apartments, garbage, 12-century mystics, and his own father’s experiences growing up in East Texas during the Great Depression. His book about racial injustice and voting rights, LILLIAN'S RIGHT TO VOTE, was a 2016 Jane Addams Award Honor Book and a 2015 Kirkus Prize finalist. Three of his books, DIEGO, HERE COME THE GARBAGE BARGE and RUTH BADER GINSBURG, were New York Times Best Illustrated Books. His book about the making of the atom bomb, THE SECRET PROJECT, received 5 starred reviews. His book about the children of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings, MY NAME IS JAMES MADISON HEMINGS, was a New York Times Notable. A poet, painter, musician, and cook, Jonah Winter divides his time between New York City and a small town in Pennsylvania.

To find out more about Jonah Winter, go to his website: www.jonahwinter.com

Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5 stars
4.2 out of 5
25 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Tina Says
5.0 out of 5 stars The Secret Project: Fantastic Historical Fiction Picture Book About the Development of the First Nuclear Bomb
Reviewed in the United States on February 23, 2017
Verified Purchase
This is a fantastic picture book explaining the development of the nuclear bomb in a way appropriate for children, and as a springboard for further reading. I have read other chapter books that deal with this topic, but this would be a fantastic way to get students curious about this event in history.

Winter's illustrations are fantastic, bringing this story to life. The text is spare, allowing for readers to spend time with the illustrations and really see what is happening in this community which was once a school for boys, but is now a place for a bomb to be developed and tested. A two-page author's note at the end of this book gives more information for older readers or those wanting to know more about this topic.

This is a must have for school library collections, more appropriate for readers grade three and up
7 people found this helpful
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Nathan Warner
5.0 out of 5 stars Remarkable
Reviewed in the United States on July 4, 2017
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I'm a longtime fan of Jonah Winter's work. I'll add this book (illustrated by his mother) to the list of the many reasons I remain such a fan. Writing a children's book about the Manhattan Project is not a simple matter, and many authors would avoid it entirely. To his credit, Winter tackles the subject, handling it in a sensitive and morally complex way that is appropriate for younger audiences. The sparse, elegiac prose is complemented beautifully by the deeply arresting images. This is the perfect starting place for any parent looking to introduce their children to more complex subjects without overwhelming them. This is a must have.
2 people found this helpful
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Debbie Reese
1.0 out of 5 stars Problems with depictions of Native people
Reviewed in the United States on March 23, 2017
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The Secret Project is getting a lot of starred reviews for its content and illustrations. As you see, I am giving it one star. I'm reading it from a Native point of view. Or, to be more specific, the point of view of a Pueblo Indian woman whose ancestors have been in the "remote desert of New Mexico" where this book is set, for thousands of years.

The opening pages depict a boys school, all alone in the middle of a "desert mountain landscape."

That school was the Los Alamos Ranch School. The boys shown are definitely not from the communities of northern New Mexico at that time. In the Author's Note, the school is described as being an elite private academy (elsewhere, I read that William Borrough's went there). It was elite, and its history is interesting, too. What bothers me about those two pages, however, is that they suggest there was nothing there at all. It is like the text in Wilder's Little House on the Prairie. All through the area where THE SECRET PROJECT is set, there are ancestral homes of Pueblo Indians. Depicting the school that way adds to the idea that the site where the bomb would be developed was isolated, but depicting it that way also erases Native people.

The government wanted the school and that area to do research, so the boys school had to close. The scientists moved in. We read that "nobody knows they are there."

Who is nobody? It was, as the Winter's tell us, a secret project. But people who lived in the area knew it was there. They may not have known what was going on, but they knew it was there. If, by "nobody," we are meant to think "citizens of the world minus those who lived there" then yes, nobody knew (but again, nobody is relevant, even to them).

We read that in "the faraway nearby" places, people didn't know the scientists were there.

Artists, specifically, don't know they are there. The first image is meant to represent Georgia O'Keefe who lived in Abiquiu, which is about 50 miles away. It--I guess--is a "nearby" place.

Then, there's the page with text that reads "Outside the laboratory, in the faraway nearby, Hopi Indians are carving beautiful dolls out of wood as they have done for centuries."

Hopi? That's over 300 miles away in Arizona. Technically, it could be the "faraway" place the Winter's are talking about, but why go all the way there? San Ildefonso Pueblo is 17 miles away from Los Alamos. Why, I wonder, did the Winter's choose Hopi? I wonder, too, what the take-away is for people who read the word "dolls" on that page? On the next page, one of those dolls is shown hovering over the lodge where scientists are working all night. What will readers make of that?

On an ensuing page, we see the scientists take a break by going to "the nearby town" on what looks like a dirt road. That town is meant to be Santa Fe, and that particular illustration is meant to depict the plaza where Native artists sell their work (there's a Native woman shown, holding a piece of pottery). It wasn't a dirt road, though. By then, Santa Fe had paved roads. Showing it as a dirt road contributes to the isolated nature of where the scientists were doing their work, but it isn't accurate.

Like many reviewers, I think the ending is provocative. The Secret Project ends with the test of the atomic bomb, at the Trinity site. As the bomb explodes, the scientists watch from a bunker, far away. The bomb's explosion fills the last page. That's it. No more story. I think some readers will think "AWESOME" and others will think it horrible. The author's note is next. It has information about the radiation that explosion left behind, how long it will be there, and that now, studies of the cancer it caused in citizens near there, are being done.

I think children should have books about subjects like the development of the bombs that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but they ought to be inclusive of -- in this case -- Native peoples who lived and live in and around Los Alamos. As is, the book yanks those readers out of the book. And, it misleads readers who don't know the area or its history.

I suspect that people will defend it, telling me or others that "it is important that kids know about the bomb" and that my concern over its misrepresentations are of less importance than knowing about the bomb. With that defense, however, it will be among the ever-growing pile of books in which this or that topic is more important than Native people.

The irony, of course, is that this universe of books is one in which books are written and published by people who are occupying Native homelands.

Published in 2017 by Beach Lane Books/Simon and Schuster, I do not recommend Jonah and Jeanette Winter's The Secret Project.
20 people found this helpful
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Tasha Saecker
5.0 out of 5 stars Brave and Powerful
Reviewed in the United States on April 3, 2017
What an incredible risk to take, creating a picture book about the creation of the atomic bomb. A mother-son team not only take that risk but create a book that is heart pounding, historical and riveting. In a shut-down school in the desert of New Mexico, a very secret project begins. The world’s greatest scientists gather to work on the “Gadget.” They work day and night working to cut an atom in half. After two years of work, the device is ready to be tested. The book ends with a countdown to the test and the resulting mushroom cloud.

Told in the simplest of language, this picture book looks at the process of building the atomic bomb, the secrecy of the project and the skill and time that it took. There is a constant growing foreboding as the project continues, as the science progresses. This book is not about the importance of the weapon and does not glorify it in any way. Instead it brings the science down to nuts and bolts, looks at the damage that it creates, and ends in a way that makes sure to leave readers with their heart in their throats.

The illustrations have a strong sense of formality and control to them. Each is framed in a square box and the rest of the page is white. They are almost tiles that decorate the wall for the reader. That all changes as the test begins and suddenly the strict rules are broken wide open, adding to the drama of the end.

Stunning, powerful and brave, this picture book belongs in all library collections. Appropriate for ages 6-8.
7 people found this helpful
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